LLED 360

Their website: http://make-it-count.ca/

An Article: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1234837/immigrant-youth-want-english-courses-to-count-toward-high-school-graduation

Below are a few questions to get your blog post started for this week, if you need some help thinking about what to write:

1. What kinds of questions are helpful to you in your own learning, and why? When are they not helpful? What about in your discipline? What kinds of questions will you ask, and why?

2. What questions do you still have about leading effective discussions in your class?

3. Pick a suggested activity from this chapter and consider how you might adapt it, and in what context it would be most useful?

The concept that I related to most this past week from the Zwiers Chapter 4 reading was at the very beginning of the reading:

“As experts in our content areas, we teachers often have ‘expert blind spots’ that keep us from realizing that much of our complex and abstract knowledge has become concrete and basic to us”.

Although I understood what Zwiers was talking about when first reading this statement, I didn’t really connect with it until we started making our lesson plans.  My partner and I are subject ‘experts’ in physical education and we were having a really difficult time trying to tie in language to a P.E lesson – I can say that until now I have never even thought about the role language plays in a physical education classroom.  How do we teach language when playing games?  Ironically, as Zwiers discusses in the textbook, I thought to myself that language was something that is focused on in an English classroom … if I want to keep my students active I can’t be constantly stopping to talk about language.  We even found it difficult to decide on what words to include in our lesson.

We chose to do our first lesson on invasive team games and started coming up with some language for that, such as: offense, advancement, width, mobility, and offensive depth.  This was a good start, but we still were not sure how to create language activities.  Doing the group work on Wednesday was extremely helpful as we were paired with some Home Ec teacher candidates.  They pointed out that even a word like ‘attack’ could be an issue for ELLs because outside of the classroom, attack means something completely different.  Both my partner and I had not even considered that!  As well, Chelsea pointed out to us that simply explaining terms like advancement and width as we did our activities was a way to incorporate teaching language in P.E.  As an active teenager, I never had trouble understanding the language that was used in my P.E classes and it was very hard to put myself back into a students’ shoes, especially when having to consider the subject from an ELL perspective.  I have definitely gained a new appreciation for the impact language can have on a classroom and an beginning to understand the subtle ways I can incorporate it into my classroom practices.  It was also really great to hear what individuals in a different subject context thought about the language we use in P.E – it really shows how collaboration across subjects can be used to enhance the learning of our future students and be incorporated into our inquiry.

“teachers in most schools around the world use many more display questions than open-ended questions. This might be due in part to the fact that most standardized tests are made up of right-or-wrong (display) questions that cover discrete pieces of knowledge and low-level skills.”

I feel compelled to critique this quote. Though I don’t completely agree with the philosophy of standardized tests and am not fond of them myself, answers for standardized tests are less arguable since they require relatively more objective answers than open-ended questions. This is why sometimes students fond of science do not particularly enjoy English exams because “it’s too open-ended” (I’m trained in the humanities, by the way) and the marking is “too subjective”. Of course, this is in the context of examination (written work). In the context of classroom academic oral discussion, I would imagine that, for the sake of the overall smoothness of the lesson, the ratio of display to open-ended questions would still result in a number greater than 1. While I agree and believe that teachers need to help students develop critical thinking skills, I have a hard time imagining that a class would go well when students are all over the place with their answers for open-ended questions. This may sound extreme, but for discussions about open-ended questions to go well the teacher would have to be experienced, have strong communication skills and excellent skills in managing different points of view. Also, I can picture a class of academically driven and intellectually motivated elite students who want to go to university after high school responding rapidly to open-ended questions…but what about those students who are not used to open-ended questions? What if answering open-ended questions is not the way they learn? What about those who are already struggling with understanding “discrete pieces of knowledge” and mastering what the author calls “low-level skills”? After all, a high school classroom is not a university seminar. However, I wonder if open-ended questions could be left for students to discuss and contemplate near the end of a lesson. In sum, the quantity of open-ended questions the teacher asks the class would depend on the language and academic level of the students, as well as cultural factors.

For some ELLs, as I mentioned in the last post, arguing and taking a side on an issue may not be something they are used to doing in the culture they came from, and so it may be the case that open-ended questions would confuse them. Furthermore, giving too many open-ended questions potentially threatens the teacher’s authority (I understand for some teachers this may not be an issue, as they see a different kind of power dynamics between the teacher and the student). In some cultures, if the teacher asks a lot of open-ended questions, the student may doubt the teacher’s competence. Hence, an appropriate quantity of open-ended questions is important.

In any case, I want to know your perspective on the debate of display vs. open-ended questions. Would you be, as a teacher candidate, comfortable giving open-ended questions in class and to what extent would you give them? What is the ratio of display and open-ended questions and where do we find the balance? Does your answer vary for different disciplines?

I think that the chapter five reading for this week is very important because it discusses the importance of providing silence and time for students to think in class.  Zwiers argues that “Silence can be golden thinking time for students” (Zwiers, 2008, p. 121).  For example, when a teacher asks students to answer a question, they need to be given the opportunity to think about how they will answer the question, collect their thoughts and then be given time to build up the courage to respond in class.

I always needed the extra time to think when I was in high school.  I was always self conscious about how my answer would compare to the other students in my class and because of that I always needed time to gain the courage to state my answer in front of the group.  According to Zwiers, if we give students a little more time to think and answer the questions that are asked of them, student responses will be more thorough, contain more precise language related to the topic, and the students will gain a more genuine sense that the teacher cares about their answers (Zwiers, 2008, p.121).  The latter point is something that I think is really important for students to gain a sense of in the classroom.  If students know that their teachers care about them, they will probably be more willing to participate in class on a regular basis.  Furthermore, if the teacher demonstrates that they care about each individual answer; students will feel appreciated and will feel that they truly bring something special to class discussions.

One of the big topics in this week’s reading surrounded questions in the classroom. I believe that questions are really important to ask when teaching to be able to engage students in learning and to allow teachers to figure out how well their students are grasping the concepts. One of the key points that really stuck with me from the reading was pausing and giving students time to think. Reflecting back to my own teaching, I realize that this is a weakness of mine. I am afraid to pause because it makes me nervous, as I am not yet confident enough as a teacher to understand the importance of pausing. This reading really impacted me and made me realize how important it is to pause and let the learner reflect on a question. I believe that allowing silence in your classroom and not feeling awkward with the silence is a mark of a good teacher.

Questioning is something that I really hope to bring to my specialty of physical education, especially when teaching students concepts and strategies surrounding sports. Questions are ways for learners to think about the concept being taught and really focus on why they are learning something. One strategy that I plan on implementing in my physical education class from the reading is simulations. Because physical education requires students to move and be active all of the time simulations are a great fit and a form of simulations occur in physical education at all times as students are always moving through different sports and activities. If teachers are really able to focus their simulation activities, students will be able to have a greater understanding of strategies and tactics because they have personally gone through them and understand where they should be positioned for certain activities and where they need to move to next.

This is a chart of stages and terms that I have made up that are used in Home Economics. Unlike in Scientific Inquiry, not all stages are present in every situation. Some stages can be skipped, such as when making a no-bake dessert, there may not be anything under the pre-preparation stage or the cooking stage. Stages can also go back and forth. For example, when using fresh herbs, one may have to cut, then measure, then mix. A more detailed chart can be made for baking and cooking. A stage such as cutting may apply more to cooking than to baking (although sometimes there is cutting involved in baking as well, such as when making apple pie for example). Another stage such as Shaping would have also been added to a more detailed baking chart as well. This chart may be very general, but I think categorizing these terms may be helpful when teaching them to our students instead of presenting them in random order on a worksheet. Terms will show up in a similar order when going through a recipe, and as students become more familiar with where they can typically expect to see these terms on a recipe, it will also help them in spotting information that may not be clearly written out in the directions section. For example, not all baking recipes clearly spell out “Preheat oven to 350F” in the first step. I have come across recipes where this information is written at the very end of the recipe as “Bake in a 350F oven”. Having an idea of the different stages will also be very helpful when cooking without a recipe or when creating one’s very own.

A lot of students are under the impression that school is a place where they must impress their teachers by achieving excellent test scores and respond to their questions with all the right answers. Why? Maybe it’s because of how the school system is modeled within TV shows that they watch, or simply because it’s implied from the learning methods they’re use to within their own classroom. One of the ways in which teachers may mislead their students is by the overuse of the traditional IRF format of school talk. An IRF ambience should only be maintained by teachers to a certain extent because it can become counterproductive in the end. This could possibly be the reason why students may possess the misconception mentioned earlier. By leading discussions where teachers are in control of what questions are asked and giving feedback to their students’ responses, students will be extremely cautious of what they say since they are now under the impression they need approval from their know-it-all teachers (111). Students may refrain themselves from participating unless they were one hundred percent sure their responses are correct.

Zwiers also explains what display questions are, and how they are a way for teachers to help students connect to pass knowledge or to recall on information that they have recently learned (104). However if it is overemphasized in the classroom it may lead students into thinking that to pass a course they only need to demonstrate their surface knowledge since higher order thinking was not encouraged by their teachers.

Through the incorporation of open ended questions, teachers may allow their students’ ideas and thoughts to build on one another. Effective class discussions are most easily facilitated when teachers are able to create classrooms environments which are warm, supportive, and one “in which pleasing the teacher is not the focus” (111). By creating this kind of classroom environment, shy, unconfident, and even ELL students will be more likely to participate. As teachers, we need to demonstrate to students that we are there to help them, and the only way in which we may most effectively do so is by understanding what troubles them. Unfortunately this does require students to make mistakes in order to learn from them, a process in which students aren’t always comfortable in going through. Only by discovering their students’ mistakes will teachers be most helpful in broadening their knowledge. Teachers need to convince students that they are on their side, and that teachers are not there to judge students based their mistakes but to use it as a way to help them instead. The only place where students will feel safe in making mistakes is in classroom they feel most comfortable in.

I have always viewed classroom discussion as beneficial, yet after reading chapter five I realize that the depth and breadth of learning that occurs during discussions is far greater than I imagined. According to Zwiers, there is something to be gained from all types of discussions, even those that revolve around “display questions”, which he finds to be one of the least effective types of questioning. I have found that “display questions” are often the most common form of questions that are used during a typical classroom lesson, as they serve the purpose of assessing previous knowledge and newly acquired knowledge. Therefore, it is tempting for teachers to use these questions frequently as they seem to be the most direct and efficient form of furthering learning.

Yet, Zwiers asserts that this belief is not correct. He asserts that “open-ended” question actually further learning in a fuller and more profound way and that they lead to richer and more academic responses. This was a very interesting discovery for me, as I often find myself leaning towards “display types” or questions when trying to find the most efficient forms of class talk. However, open-ended questions allow for the students to cultivate important thinking skills such as, “(1) Personalizing…(2) justifying, (3) clarifying, and (4) elaborating” (106) and “these types of open questions show students that we teachers still ask good questions and that experts in a content area still seek deeper knowledge about a subject” (107). I thought that the later was an especially important point. Display questions influence students to think that there can only be one particular answer to a question, and that the teacher has the ultimate power to define what that answer. However, open question create a less intimidating and more inviting atmosphere for students to experiment with possible answers and attempt to build knowledge in cooperation with the teacher. I plan on acting on these discoveries as I formulate my lesson plans and take note as to what types of class talk result from discussions that do not use the “IRF” (110) model, but instead ask questions in which students believe that I don’t definitively “know” the answer.

However, even though all questions can be beneficial to a degree, Zwiers believes that the act of teachers posing questions is much too frequent in the classroom setting and that it is not necessary for the facilitation of meaningful discussions. He provides many excellent examples of how to structure such discussion, many of which I will test during my practicum.

Finally, the development of students “academic listening” skills and note taking is very important. I still am shocked by the number of my classmates in college level courses that are not able to take effective notes. Fostering students learning of this incredibly important skill will benefit them for their entire lives, inside and outside of classroom settings. Zwiers gives a number of good examples of how to do this (ie. “Three-Column Notes”) (120) and provides insights into the thought processes that inform such practices (ie. “Chunking information into levels of importance”) (p.119). I think that the importance of academic listening and note taking cannot be underestimated and I know that such skills can define students’ future success in academic classrooms and in life.

Melanie Reich

Zwiers, J. (2008). Academic classroom discussions. In Building academic language: Essential practices for content classrooms (Ch. 5, pp. 101-133). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Generating in-class discussion can be an incredibly useful process that helps information transition into knowledge. Unfortunately, in many cases it can be underused or even entirely misused. For a proper conversion to take place, discussions need to be able to ebb and flow organically, rather than follow a rigid, linear structure. What can educators help promote this kind of productive discussion and avoid the pitfalls of surface-level discussion?

Display questions are used to prompt simply confirmations of understanding. Although they are used with great frequency, they do not promote deeper learning, especially for those who aren’t typically prompted. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has been shown that the ones who would benefit most from this kind of check-in questions are the ones who are most often overlooked in the classroom. In my own practice, I hope to minimize relying on display questions whenever possible. I believe that by regularly using display question, we lower the learning expectations and teach students to focus on ‘surviving’ these randomized check-in questions rather than continuously engaging with the material.

Open-ended questions call for more than observation or basic processing but actually necessitate some amount of independent critical thought. Follow-up questions may lead to further development, requiring students to justify and articulate their rationale. In other cases, they might be used to prompt students to clarify and organize their thoughts. Hopefully this kind of questioning leads to a natural discussion amongst students. A gentle influence must be adopted in order to direct an enriching dialogue without overtaking and limiting it.